Mental health & gambling

Hello Lints

Welcome to the forum.

Self-exclusion, blocking software and handing over finances are all good barriers to put in place to help you stop and take stock of your situation without causing anymore financial hardship.

I suffered terribly with selective mutism. It's a severe anxiety disorder, sometimes described as a mental illness and led me to an equally severe gambling addiction.

I gambled to make money without speaking. Gambling almost was my medication; inadvertently it has helped me speak, but has created a lot of unwanted side effects.

You seem to have recognised your problem early and identified the main cause which is an excellent start.

Depression and gambling are common together. If you phone the GamCare helpline I'm sure they will be able to offer you some good advice and can arrange free counselling that you might find useful.

I find keeping busy crucial. It will take your time away and your mind off gambling. This forum is good for spending time productively and learning how different people deal with their gambling addiction.

Look forward to following your progress.

Best wishes

Glint

Hey glint, thanks for the reply.

it sounds like you've had a hard time of it, but are in a good place now?

today I self-excluded on all the apps I regularly used. I've had to borrow some money from friends so my other half doesn't find out what happened yesterday, and has been happening all year. I hate lying but she has enough worries so whilst it's still just about possible to shield her from it I will do. Overall, despite a slight tightness in the pit of my stomach I'm feeling positive and determined. Did a lot of reading around the forum and there's lots I read that helped me in various ways. The coming months will be tight as I pay back those I've borrowed from, but I'm hoping to be back on track coming into autumn. I actually feel a lot more appreciation for all the little things in my life today, which is a nice feeling. It's like the mud of gamblings dirty cash is washing away and I can see my life from a new perspective.

Hi Lints

First of all I would tell your OH and I would do that ASAP, these things have a habbit of coming back to bite us on the a**e if not, if not now, when you have got stuff in place to show you are serious about packing it in, secondly I would strongly advise going to a GA meeting, gamcare is great but I don't think on its own its enough, you will get some superb advise from GA

The mental health problems and gambling go hand in hand, one feeds the other and they snowball, for me , I think I started about with a mild depression, gambled a LOT, making this much worse and causing anxiety ande panic attacks, to the point of a nervous breakdown, I actually think they prey on people with such issues, the reason I say this is from spending so much time in the grottiest bookies/areas of a major northern city centre and a hell of a lot of the people in there clearly had MH issues, especially once they turned into FOBT zombies, the only thing gambling will certainly do for mental health problems is make them worse, now that is nailed on tip if you ever had one

good luck

PD

Hi Lints

Yes depression and other mental illness go hand in hand with gambling.

Depression had completely overcome me to the point where I didnt even know I was that depressed. Its a complex issue. I could still have a laugh and I wasnt crawling round the streets. However I now realise I was so lonely, so empty inside and so aimless. I had lost the will to do much else but gamble for some sort of escape or fix

This was coupled with self esteem issues and therefore anxiety. No work, no aims and deep down I felt I had no future even if I was putting a brave face on it.

People get scared of the words mental illness. It doesnt mean we need a straightjacket and are thumbing the lips. It does mean that I got depressed with life and used gambling as an escape . I think my body wanted a high to compensate for things it was not getting...love...a fun time with friends. Theres even a train of thought that I wanted to self destruct. Sometimes I did have a fleeting thought that if I lay down on the pavement somebody would help me find a purpose again....yes that is the power of illness and addiction

Ive seen a lot of gamblers and I see a certain emptiness inside. some cover it with the great pretender routine. Even the Jack the lad brash characters. One guy said right Im off to the airport on my holidays now and told me all about the plane waiting and the hot destination. Less than an hour later he was back in and sheepishly tried to avoid eye contact . Thats just a one mild example of the delusion and twists which are just not a healthy state of mind. The point is that its not just the quiet ones.

I am now getting a full health check up through the doctor with the IAPT service. Im proud to say that because I need help, counselling a check up and a confirming diagnosis if they see anything.

Mental illness leads to gambling and fuels the addiction which is itself a mental illness. Then its just a vicious and very dangerous circle.

It can be beaten with the right blocks, help and counselling

Best wishes

im in a similar situation

i lost 20 quid in work this morning just messing around on inplay football bets ........why did i do this ? i should have been working or just on facebook like most of my colleagues

i dont know why i do it to be honest

i cant afford to gamble , but then i cant afford not to gamble if that makes any sense lol

my live is a mess and its primarily because of gambling i know this so why do i keep doing it every month lol

I gambled excessively for over ten years. I'm not in a good place but I've been in far worse. I'm trying hard and making progress. That's most important at this stage for me, thanks.

If you gamble like me for ten years then you can probably multiply how bad things are now by ten and that's as good as things are likely to get for you.

The sooner you identify and do something about this addiction the better. It's a progressive addiction for most. Things can always get worse.

Like PlasticDream, a lot of people in the bookies I used had mental health problems. I'm reliably told that a couple of the regulars had been sectioned.

I've seen some sad sights over the years in the bookies.

I think I'm lucky really. In so much as I've only been gambling for 10 months. I've lost about 4k, or thereabouts. Remembered another app I use this morning so logged on to self exclude, there was £111 of bonus money sat in the account, but I hadn't reached the wager requirements to withdraw. Previously I'd of just played anyway to build it up, but I just totally can't be arsed to have gambling in my life anymore so continued to exclude myself and delete the app as soon as possible. They can take their bonus and shove it where the sun doesn't shine haha. It's early days but I'm still feeling a bit reborn deep down, it's made me look at my life and actions within my life and decide if I'm on the right track. And there was plenty of room for improvement. It's been an expensive lesson, and it's still early days, but I'm happy I'm on track to leave it all behind so far. I'm still going to bring it up with my psychologist, it's in my nature to be all or nothing and have an addictive personality so I'm not sure what he will ultimately be able to do